Contemplating Danilo Thann
by Silverfox1
Summary: Written for Juletide 2012. This was a false start on my assignment. Elaith's thoughts about Danilo.


Contemplating Danilo Thann

Even after living in a city dominated by them and working closely with many for almost a century Elaith was not fond of humans. They were ugly, clumsy, much too heavily built brutes. How they managed to breed fast enough to overrun everything despite their pathetically short lifespans still puzzled him, but nevertheless they were slowly driving his own kind towards extinction and he well knew it.

What some elves saw in them to actually, voluntarily reproduce with them was already beyond his imagination, but what Arilyn, the daughter of a princess of Evermeet no less, saw in Danilo Thann of all humans was mind-boggling.

Granted, Arilyn was already tainted with human blood herself, but surely even she had to notice the difference between Bran Skorlsun, dedicated ranger with a deep respect for the very things elves too valued the most, and Danilo Thann, frivolous half-wit nobleman with no respect for anything at all.

Why had she chosen Danilo Thann, when she could have had Elaith?

Or at least some other elf. Granted Elaith's reputation wouldn't exactly recommend him as a lover for a noble elven hero, much less one of royal blood. He was unworthy of her and freely admitted that, but surely so was Danilo Thann!

Of course there was the fact that Danilo was Khelben Arunsun's nephew and now also freely admitted to being a member of the harpers. That didn't fit in well with his usual inane behaviour and superficiality. The man was a puzzle and when his quest to restore his family moonblade had coincidentally thrown them into closer contact than Elaith had ever wished for he had decided to distract himself by trying to solve it.

As a result he had lately given this worthless specimen of humankind more attention than he'd ever given any member of that unappealing race before.

The results had remained unpromising nevertheless. Yes, the human was certainly more intelligent than he usually let on. His early attempts to draw Elaith out had clearly proven that. Elaith had never for a moment been fooled into believing that he merely wished to pass the time with mere conversation, though after a while he'd almost come to the conclusion that they were a clumsy attempt at making friends.

He had noticed before that some human males appeared to express friendship by constantly insulting and teasing each other - apparently without ever cutting too deep - and when the human had given him elverquist after his dance performance had seriously considered Danilo's quips in that light. It was very unlikely that Danilo Thann knew and understood the significance that gesture had in elven culture, but being the son of a wine merchant he had to be fully aware of the monetary value of the precious elven wine. There'd been no reason to throw it away on an enemy.

After that Elaith had even contemplated an experimental attempt to respond in kind and see how the human would react.

Of course he didn't exactly long for friendship with a human of all creatures, but he did have to live among them and frequently did business with the most dangerous of their kind. Knowing their ways was useful and this particular human, annoying though he was, had excellent connections to offer as well as a chance to study human behaviour under slightly less risky circumstances. If Elaith could get him to trust him enough that he might occasionally let slip whatever he knew of Khelben Arunsun's plans, harper activities or even just his family's business deals, it might well be worth suffering his insults and embarrassing act.

He'd almost made up his mind to try - and then the human had dared to mess with his moonblade and Wyn Ashgrove, that arrogant bastard of a gold elf, had dared to imply that punishing him for using an already disgraced sword would only disgrace it even more. As if the hand of a filthy human could lend more honour to the blade than Elaith's own!

It stung more than it had any right to and, if he was entirely honest with himself, Elaith knew exactly why: because he suspected that it might be true. The spellsinger himself at least had made it quite clear that he thought Danilo Thann was more of an elf than Elaith by agreeing to teach the human spellsong magic.

That was the biggest insult of all.

And yet, despite the fact that every note Danilo played painfully reminded him of the insult, Elaith was still drawn to his music so much that he slid inconspicuously closer to the pair at every practise session just to hear the human play.

For that, maybe even more than for touching the moonblade, Danilo Thann would have to die. And that hurt as well. How strange that it should, that he felt almost hesitant to end a short, worthless human life. He'd killed so many of them without even considering what they might lose. And what were a few years or even decades of life? The human was young even for his kind, yes, but even if he lived out his natural lifespan he'd be gone almost before little baby Azariah reached adulthood.

No, of course he couldn't be feeling sorry for the loss to Danilo Thann, and he certainly wasn't sad to lose such a short-lived creature too soon. After all it was the natural course of things that humans died and elves lived on. It was just a pity that he'd have to give up his experiment of befriending one so soon.


End file.
